How to Pay for Grad School: 7 Ways to Save Thousands in the Long Run

It’s no secret that student debt is a major crisis in the United States. If you’ve gone through yourundergraduate years, you know how challenging it was to pay for your tuitionand secure a great education for yourself. If you would like to take it a stepfurther and attend graduate school, we applaud your efforts. But we do not want you to buryyourself in debt. We do not want you to be part of the student debt crisis.

We want you to know how to pay forgrad school. We want you to focus on your education – we do not want youto stress about your bank account. TheGuide on How to Pay for Grad School In this guide, we will show you howto pay for grad school. We want you to be able to be in as little debt aspossible. We want you to also be able to focus on your studies, making youreducation your priority. Here’s what we suggest: 1.Rent Your Textbooks During your undergraduate years, youmay have rented as opposed to purchasing your textbooks. Renting your textbooksis almost always a more affordable option. This is especially true for more rigorous fields of study such as the sciences. If you do happen to be pursuing a graduate degree in science, these great reasons will convince you to rent your textbooks.

2. GetYour Employer to Pay If you are employed full-time, youmay be able to convince your employer to pay for your tuition. Usually, this only happens if yourfield of study is related to your work. If it is, you can ask your client topay for a portion of your tuition. They may possibly cut down your salary or ifyou are lucky, will pay your full salary and pay part of your tuition. They may require that you remainwith them for a set duration after your graduation so youshould keep this in mind before requesting them paying for yourtuition. 3. Get aScholarship There are scholarships available forgraduate students. In most cases, these work as a financial grant and do notneed to be paid back. Scholarships are usually based onmerit so you will have to showcase that you are doing well in your studies toqualify for one. The first place to go is theacademic department where your field of study is under. You can ask theadministration for any information on scholarships. The next place, of course,is to do online research on any scholarship opportunities. 4. TeachingAssistant or Research This may not be available for allfields of study. However, if your field of study offers opportunities to be ateaching assistant for undergraduate students in the same field of study, thiscan be a great opportunity to earn an income to pay for your tuition.

Being a teaching assistant lets youwork alongside a professor to teach a class and prepare and grade assignments.You can also work at the university as a researcher. Doing research helps thedepartment learn more about the subject and can help you earn an income to payfor your tuition. Sometimes, being a teachingassistant or researcher or work-study employee may not pay you an income;however, your tuition will be automatically waived, in part or in full, if youtake any of these jobs. 5. Part-TimeJob If you are studying full-time, youmay be overwhelmed by the thought of taking a job. After all, your priority iswith your studies and you do not want an additional responsibility that adds toyour burden. However, a part-time job will likelybe less stressful. You can choose your hours to work around your class andstudying schedule. When you are hired for a part-time position, your employerwill likely be more sympathetic to you being a student. If you need to workfewer hours during examination times, they are likely to acquiesce to yourdemands. A part-time job is often not astressful job and can be a simple and routine work that doesn’t overwhelm you –but does help you earn to pay for your tuition. 6. OnlinePassive Income Wouldn’t it be great if you couldfocus on your studies while an income continuously reached your bank account? This continuous income with minimaleffort is known as passive income. And the best avenue for building an onlineincome is through the Internet. You can create a course about yourfield of study (or any interest of yours) and sell it on a website such asSkillshare and Udemy. Once the course has been created it is always availablefor potential students to purchase. You can also participate in onlinesurveys – many that are targeted to students – that give you money just forparticipating. You can also sell your usedtextbooks online. And this doesn’t have to be limited to textbooks. Any bookthat you no longer need can be sold online. 7. SaveYour Money Of course, the best way is to saveyour money. There are many great strategies to ensure that you have a safetynet that you can dip into when you need to pay for your tuition. Any loose change that you accumulateshould be put into a piggy bank. You should only dip into this piggy bank whenit comes time to pay for your tuition. It may not always pay the full amount,but it may cover a portion or at least pay for the cost of textbooks. You should also aim to put aside atleast 10 percent of your income in savings if possible. If you can put asidemore, then you should. You should also be frugal with yourspending. Spend more time cooking than eating at restaurants. Cancel anysubscriptions that you do not regularly use – i.e., cancel Netflix if you spenddays trying to get through one episode of a show. By saving your money and beingfrugal, you will see that you’ll have a wider safety net. This will come inhandy when paying for tuition. GetYour Education Now that you know how to pay forgrad school, we wish you the best as you get our education. Be sure to learn more aboutopportunities to earn scholarships and finance your education.